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Monthly Archives: October 2013

Gallup revealed today that only 60 percent of Americans in its most recent survey favor the death penalty for people convicted of murder, which is the lowest share in over 40 years. Here’s the evolution of Americans’ attitudes about the death penalty: Support for the death penalty seemed to peak at a time when violent…

As Talking Points Memo reported this afternoon, Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, a conservative Republican who is close to Speaker John Boehner, made some promising news in an interview Bloomberg’s Al Hunt: He expressed openness to revenue-raising tax reforms on repatriation of stranded profits overseas and ratcheting back the carried interest loophole, which allows private equity…

This costs nearly two racks in Rio de Janeiro. (William Tung/Flickr) The internet has not only facilitated the instantaneous spread of information around the world, but it’s also internationalized the consumer goods market. Corporations can no longer silo products in different regions with their customers none the wiser. More importantly, they can’t keep regional price…

Another day, another tragic shooting (this one in my former home state of Nevada). The media is not very good at reporting on guns and I don’t expect this to change anytime soon, so it’s as good a time as any to re-post something I wrote early this year for the Online Journalism Review. NOTE:…

The housing market in America is mainly a function of how loose monetary policy is. Demand matters, but it’s not the demand of physical homes that is important. It’s demand for mortgage loans on the secondary market. When banks can borrow cheaply, they can issue mortgage loans at relatively low interest. A lower interest rate…

Everyone knows by now that the traditional business model of journalism is no longer viable. However, publishing and disseminating information is easier than ever before, and there is no lack of interested eyeballs for this information. Someone is going to figure out how to monetize these eyeballs, and the person that does will change the…

Mmmmmmm. (Photo courtesy stu_spivack/Flickr) In honor of some person named Siouxsie Sioux joining other British public figures in coming out against the sale of foie gras, I figured it was as good a time as any to re-up a piece I wrote for Neon Tommy last year explaining why such people are being silly. Foie…

LAX’s dry ice prankster is not an Islamic radical. He’s not a right-wing extremist. He’s not a terrorist, or even a real bomber. He is a garden-variety knucklehead working a thankless job and there are plenty like him on tarmacs throughout the country. That’s my major airport security concern. I have long believed that the…

Pimpin ain’t easy atoll (Wikimedia Commons) The Cocos (Keeling) (why the parentheses?) Islands is an Australian-owned archipelago in the middle of the Indian Ocean and home to about 600 people. Its founding myth is much more interesting than that: After the discovery of the islands by Captain Keeling, their first notable visitor was Captain John…

Rich, highly developed countries tend to have fewer murders than poorer ones. The thinking is that when more people have more to lose by not playing by the rules, and when there is effective law enforcement to enforce said rules, they will increasingly pursue alternate means of conflict resolution. If the best government can provide…